


The Cost of Friendship

by noveltea



Series: Children of the Gods [3]
Category: Battlestar Galactica (2003)
Genre: Alternate Universe, F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-07-17
Updated: 2010-07-17
Packaged: 2017-10-10 14:48:27
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,214
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/100943
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/noveltea/pseuds/noveltea
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Lee is reunited with Olivia.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Cost of Friendship

Sitting on the edge of the bed, she watched as Lee's chest rose, and fell, with every intake and exhalation of breath. He looked so peaceful when he slept; nothing like the distraught man she had seen earlier in the evening.

After Commander Adama had returned from _Galactica_ he had looked like someone had kicked him in the chest and broken his heart. The _Pegasus_ flight deck, however, had not been the appropriate place, or time, for asking him about it. He had retreated to his quarters, and she had returned to her duties, waiting until she was off-duty to speak to him.

For Olivia, watching her oldest surviving friend from her old life drink his sorrows down with a bottle of Ambrosia while locking himself in the quarters he had inherited from the previous _Pegasus_ commanders was heart-breaking. He looked terrible, his uniform untucked and askew, and he looked like he had been crying.

For the longest time, she had believed herself in love with the man; he'd simply captivated her from the moment she met him. Now she knew that there were many kinds of love, and there's didn't need to be physical to survive. It had survived years of military training and separation and each other's personal relationships with others. It had survived "death." It simply needed to be.

She had listened as he spoke of Kara Thrace. Starbuck, the hotshot, and one-time CAG of the Beast's pilots. Lee loved her, that much was evident. To what extent, Olivia had never pressed. All she knew was that Thrace had broken Lee's heart, and that wasn't something she was sure she could forgive.

She didn't question Lee's relationship with Dualla, but one day she would, because it made little sense to her, and somethings she thought it made even less sense to Lee. There was affection there, but seeing the impact Thrace had left on her friend made Olivia wonder about the motivations in Lee's relationship with Dualla.

By the end of their talk, she had eased the bottle of alcohol away from him, capping it and hiding it under the desk. Lee didn't seem to notice, his head resting on his arms resting on the desk. She had decided it was probably time for him to sleep in a proper bed; the ship would be in capable hands until morning.

Though they were the same height, Lee easily had more weight behind him, and she poked and prodded him (in the way that only good friends could) until he helped her help him to his bed. They were a tangle of arms, and she found herself pulled down, half caught beneath him as she started laughing helplessly. He looked at her as though he wasn't sure what he was laughing at. His blue _blue_ eyes had lost some of the glazed look they had had when she had first entered the room and he seemed to focus on her face, which only made her laugh more.

"Alright, Lee," she told him, half-sliding out, half-pushing him off of her so that she could get up. "You need to sleep this off. And we can talk again in the morning."

He stared at her, still not understanding; in retrospect, he probably wasn't even listening. She shook her head and stripped him of his jacket and shoes. It was quick and efficient and impersonal, as though she had cared for many intoxicated persons before him. Which was true - one didn't live on board a battlestar without learning how to look after comrades who taken rec time to enjoy the 'finer' pleasures on offer.

She'd been about to leave when his hand gripped her arm, pulling her back around to face him. One simple word sent a shiver down her spine.  
"Stay."

The invitation wasn't something she'd expected; despite having loved the man for as long as she'd known him, it was something she had never really thought about. He was _Lee_. He followed the rules, just like she did. The entire basis of their relationship had been forged on trust and friendship and a commitment that had so far exceeded that of any relationship she had had with anyone else. It worked for them, and to deviate from that was something that scared her.

"Lee..."

"Shh." He silenced her with a finger to her lips, and she closed her eyes at his touch. His hands were warm, and she was transfixed. Damn him. "Stay."

He hadn't given her more time than that to refuse as he undid the buttons on her uniform. She would have sworn that his drunken state had all been an act had he actually been able to undo the buttons, but he stumbled and she found herself helping him. Freed eventually of the jacket, he pulled her down to him and this time she didn't try to right herself.

She fell into his kiss - their second kiss, counting the one she had given him after his graduation from war college - and they didn't break apart until they were struggling for air. She managed to get a hand on his chest and hold him away from her long enough to get her head around what was happening, still gulping down air.

If there wasn't panic in her eyes, she would have demanded to know why. Lee either didn't see it, or knew that it didn't really matter either way. Regardless, she help him off, letting her head drop to his chest. "Lee..."

The hand he ran through her hair, down the back of neck, sent shivers down her back. "Mm?"

She brought her head back up, holding one hand across his mouth in case he got any cute ideas of cutting her off - with words, or with his lips on hers. "You are going to wake up and regret this," she told him, mustering as much strength behind them as she could. "You _know_ that."

He met her eyes squarely and they were so intense she almost looked away. He shook his head, "No." So simple. "Just this once."

She had been under no illusions that it would be more than this night. Had no illusions that what she could provide was comfort and nothing more than that. All her attempts to protect their friendship seemed to ride on this decision, and half-collapsed on his lap, surrounded by him, there wasn't much incentive to say no.

Her hand slipped away from his face and he took that as his answer, pulling her down once more. "Just this once," he whispered across her lips, and she let herself succumb to the feelings her pulled out of her.

Later, when she disentangled her limbs from his, she wondered whether or not she had made the right decision. Sitting on the edge of his bed, watching him sleep, she forced herself to not regret any decision regardless of the outcome.

In the morning he would resume command of the Beast, she would return to the flight deck. The fleet would decide on it's own fate under their new President, and the universe would continue on it's own journey. But morning was still a few hours away.

As she placed a feather-light kiss on his lips, she knew she could wait just a little longer.


End file.
